The Children's Hospital
by Nightosphere Princess
Summary: "There's not a place more famously unplayed in than a hospital playgroud, and there she was sitting on the swing set,"-The Fault In Our Stars. We were those kids nobody really wanted to be friends with, and we were the kids who really needed them, guess we were fortunate enough to be put through the unfortunate things that would constantly lead us to where we crossed paths. AU
1. Chapter 1

"Honestly Eleanor, how many times am I going to have to drive you to the ER before you learn not to mess with fire?!" Her dad scolded from the driver's seat of his red SUV. Eleanor sat in the back behind the passenger seat. Which was empty, its usual occupant laying under a tree in the local cemetery. "None of your older brothers did this, so why are you?"

"I swear I slipped and fell on some ice and my hand hit the stove, I wasn't messing with matches like last time," She said sorrowfully. Her waist length, orangey red hair rippled softly in the wind, that was let through by the cracked open front car window. Also letting through the smell of car exhaust and road kill.

"Why was the stove on in the first place?". Eleanor didn't respond, she just kept starring out the window. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do Eleanor,". They rode in silence after that.

~8*8~

"Eleanor just sit on that bench and stay there while I go get the paperwork,". Eleanor sat on the bench as she was told. A young boy, not too much younger than her, wearing a cute bear hat with a little bit of longish blonde hair sticking out from the bottom.

"What's up?" he said a little too cheerful for a boy in the ER. "Not in too much pain are you?".

"I burnt my hand, what landed you here?" She said.

"Fell off a tree, I think I dislocated my shoulder or something," He said, as if he hurt himself on accident on a regular basis. "No biggie, just got to take every bruise like it's a gift from the universe. My name's Finn, by the way. What's your's Flame Princess?"

"Eleanor," She said. The red headed girl couldn't figure out how this boy could have such a positive and caring attitude when in a room full of hurt, sick and crying children. "Flame Princess I think suits me well though,". Her dad came back with a clipboard, a blue form, and a pen. He sat down and started filling out information on the sheet, barely glancing at his daughter.

"Finn Mertens," said a female doctor standing in the hallway entrance

"See you at school or something FP," he said getting up from the bench, the lady she assumed was his Mom put the magazine she was reading down, and Finn followed her as she walked to the room where the doctor would treat his arm. Eleanor smiled, did she really just meet somebody that could possibly become her friend at a hospital? Judging by the pain in her hand, she wasn't dreaming.


	2. Chapter 2

"_None will stand in my way, tattered memories of those brighter days, Rosy cheeks all but drained, watch the color fade away to grey"_. Marceline had the volume high on her personal radio and CD player, listening to one of her favorite songs by The Scream Queens. She loved how the right music could just take her away to this whole new world. She didn't enjoy all the latest Taylor Swift or One Direction crap the radio wanted to spew, and the dial had broken. So her radio and CD player only was only ever used for CD's, and she could play The Scream Queens over and over. Her bedroom was painted the same eggshell white color it's been since the apartment complex opened up fifty or so years ago. Her desk was littered with song lyrics and poetry. Some she had written herself, others she had heard on the radio at a restaurant or something and couldn't help but write down.

"Marceline!" She heard Aunt Betty scream from the kitchen. The clock on the radio read 2:07, Shoot she had a doctor's appointment at 2:45 and it's a thirty minute drive to the dang hospital. She got up from her bed, that hadn't been made since like, ever. She turned the radio off and headed for her bedroom door. Her raven hair was a mess but she could comb that in the car. Her sweater was halfway tucked into her pants and one pant leg was rolled and the other wasn't, easy fix. Her blue pair of flip flops were by the door way. Good.

"Did you forget about the appointment you had today?" Betty said when Marceline entered the kitchen, the appliances and counters were that same dirty white color everything else was in the apartment.

"Not exactly," She said slipping on her flip flops. Betty rummaged through her fairly large purse trying to find her car keys. "Oh your car keys are on the countertop next to the refrigerator," Betty turned around and sure enough , the keys were on the countertop next to the fridge.

"Oh thanks Marceline,"

~8*8~

An hour long wait for anything can feel like forever, especially at a hospital. Betty usually brought her copy of _On the Origin of Species _or something like that. Marceline's ipod had broken a couple of months ago, so she had nothing to distract herself from the screams and whines of young children, except for the mind numbing programming on Disney Channel, which was playing on the TV screen mounted on the wall. Can't they air the movies, instead of this crap?

"Hey is this seat taken?" asked a girl about her age.

"No, you can sit there it's fine," said Marceline. The first thing she noticed about this girl was that she had shoulder length hair that was dyed hot pink. It looked liked she had dyed it yesterday.

"Doctor's appointments are so nerve-racking, I like how everything here is so colorful and welcoming and not white everywhere, but it's still intimidating," She said, upon closer inspection Marceline could tell that this girl was wearing a wig. "Oh I just started talking and didn't even bother telling you my name, it's Bonnibel!"

"Marceline, and I guess there are things you can't really take the intimidation out of. But if they're going to make us wait an hour and a half, they should at least play the Disney movies like _Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella, Mulan, _and _The Lion King. _Where a bunch of bad things happen to the protagonist but it all turns out okay in the end. Something inspirational and actually entertaining for all ages."

"I don't usually watch Disney movies, I mostly watch science documentaries on PBS or stuff on Discovery Channel." Bonnibel said.

"I used to watch a lot of Disney movies when I was little, but now I'm really into music…"

"Please don't say One Direction," Bonnibel said. Marceline grinned.

"I despise One Direction, I'm mostly into the Scream Queens, and I write my own stuff occasionally,"

"I've only heard their song about the greedy fisherman," she said as the woman she assumed was Bonnibel's mother sat down next to them.

"I hope you weren't up to anything distasteful while I was gone," the woman said.

"No Mom, I was just talking to this girl sitting next to us, her name is Marceline," She said

"Well that's great, It's nice that you're getting along with kids your age," Bonnibel's mom said, before looking towards Betty "And you must be Marceline's mom,". Betty turned her head away from her book. She had been sort of listening to the girls' conversation and was not at all surprised by the fact that she was being acknowledged by the other girl's guardian. The part that threw her off guard was the fact that she was referred to as "Marceline's _mom_".

"Oh, I'm her aunt Betty, you know Marceline never really talks to other kids much either,"

"Oh sorry my bad, I'm Jenn."

~8*8~

"Well that was a…odd visit to the doctor," Betty said when they got back to the apartment. Jenn and Betty had agreed that it would be a good idea for the girls to see each other again. Because at twelve years old neither girl could remember ever really having friends their own age.

"When is Dad coming home?" Marceline asked, taking off her flip flops.

"In five days, then he'll be home for an entire week," she said. Marceline groaned, she'll be back at the hospital for a good bit of that week. Stupid cancer, it was bad enough that it had to take her mommy from her. Why did she have to get stuck with it?


	3. Chapter 3

** Hello my fellow fan geeks, and hello people who feel like wasting time on the internet. Just want to give a quick thank you to all of you who reviewed, followed, favorited, and of course thank you to the people who bothered to even read this**_**. **_**On with the story!**

~8*8~

"So how was the doctor's appointment?" Mr. Gum asked when his wife and eldest child came through the front door. He was sitting on the couch, playing Candy Crush on his iphone. Bonnibel's five year old little sister Goliad and nine year old little brother Marc where sitting on the floor in front of him, playing with Goliad's Barbie dolls.

"It went well," Jenn said, hanging her purse on one of the coat hooks.

"Did the doctor make Sissy all better yet?" Goliad asked. She didn't understand why it was taking so long for her big sister to get better. She went to the doctor a lot, she was even there for a couple days once. Her mommy and daddy said that the medicine made Sissy tired and made her hair fall out, but she could wear wigs, which were sort of like hats that look and feel like hair. Goliad liked that her sister didn't look completely bald. But when was she going to be able to run around with her on the playground and grow her own hair again?

"Not yet Goliad, she just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting any worse," Bonnibel said trying to sound reassuring.

"You're not getting worse are you? Cause that was scary when…".

"It's okay Goliad. I'm getting a little bit better, still sick but a tiny bit better than last time I went to the doctor," Bonnibel said.

"Yay, Sissy's getting a bit better!" Goliad cheered in a way only five year old girls can.

~8*8~

There was a knock at the apartment door, and Marceline stopped strumming the acoustic guitar her dad had gotten her for her birthday two years ago. No one ever knocked on the door. Only three people ever entered the apartment and they lived there. She got up from her swivel chair and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, Marceline could you get the door?" said Betty in the bathroom. "It's probably Jenn and Bonnibel, if it is let them in, the hallway is cold"

"I'll get it," Said Marceline. She opened the front door and sure enough there was Jenn, holding a Tupperware container of cookies and Bonnibel wearing a curly pink wig with glitter in it. She probably started chemo in October when all the costume shops were open.

"Hello Marceline, is your aunt home?" Jenn asked.

"Yeah, she's in the bathroom, she'll be out in a minute. You guys can come in, I'm sure we have milk to go with those cookies,". The two walked in and Jenn set the cookies on the table. Betty had finished her business and came out to great the two guests.

"Well hi! Are those cookies for us? How nice of you. Honestly I can barely make decent cookies if I go to Wal-Mart and buy a box of pre-made mix. But trust me I have never caused an explosion in a chemistry. Though this one guy did while I was working at a university. He was okay though, the idiotic thing that lead to that was him leaving the room to pee," She said.

"Your welcome and the whole chemistry thing is great, I guess," said Jenn unsure of how to respond.

"Hey, how about the girls go to Marceline's room and talk about whatever twelve year old girls talk about, and you and I stay out here while I make dinner and we can talk as well, you know about our jobs or how you managed to bake those cookies," said Betty.

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Jenn said. "Let us know if you need anything or if anything bad happens,". The girls said okay and headed over to Marceline's room. Bonnibel thought the room was a bit odd. There a full size mattress and box spring without a bed frame or head board, and a simple desk and swivel chair. Furniture wise, that was it. The bed was a disarray of bed sheets, and a worn teddy bear was lain gently atop a pillow. The desk was a huge mess of note books and pens. A variety of sticky notes were pressed against the wall, each had a song lyric scribbled on it. A guitar was propped against the desk. Marceline wasn't kidding when she said that she was in to music.

"So this is were you live," said Bonnibel.

"Yeah, when I'm not being drugged up or operated on by doctor's," She said, plopping herself on the bed. "Cancer sucks,".

"I know, how long have you had it?" Bonnibel asked sitting herself down on the swivel chair.

"Well I had it once when I was five and I got it again when I was eleven, got treatment, turned twelve, thought it was gone but no it's back. I have surgery scheduled on Friday. Yeah, exactly how a twelve year old girl wants to spend a Friday night." Marceline said, that last sentence dripping with sarcasm.

"My little sister is five," said Bonnibel. "It's hard trying to explain to her what I'm going through, I couldn't imagine how she'd take it if she were sick with it,"

"What's sadder is explaining to a five year old girl that her mom had died of the same disease that she has," Marceline said, "I'm sorry that was sad and kinda personal, but I like having someone to talk to. I guess that's why I'm into music. It can just take so much off your shoulders and make you feel so free,"

** Okay I promise next chapter is about uber positive and childish Finn. So a break from all the cancer feels. **


	4. Chapter 4

When Finn and Margaret had returned home, Jermaine had just beat Jake in a game of _Magic: the Gathering. _And if Finn knew anything about his older brother Jake, it was that he did not like to lose a game of _Magic: the Gathering_. Which was why their friends Bea Moore and Rain Connor wouldn't play those kinds of games with them.

"You cheated!" Jake said throwing the cards around.

"I won fair and square, and if I had a dollar for every time you cheated…"

"Boys calm down, Jake you'll win some other game, some other time." Margaret scolded.

"Yes ma'am," Jake said reluctantly.

"Good, you three try not to hurt each other or break anything while I make dinner, I don't want to drive another kid to the hospital," she said, knowing that the boys had a tendency to roughhouse and someway or another injure themselves. As Margaret left the room, Finn told his brothers about the girl he talked to at the ER.

"She liked the nickname you gave her?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, she said Flame Princess suited her,"

"Dude, this girl sounds like a pyromaniac," Jermaine stated, picking up the cards Jake had thrown.

"She's not a pyromaniac, she just burned her hand and likes the nickname Flame Princess," Finn said.

"Do you have a way of contacting her again?" Jake asked.

"uhh…"

~8*8~

Eleanor plopped herself on her bed, and cried into her pillow. After another speech fro her father on how awful her behavior was and how disappointed he was in her, her father commanded her to go into her bedroom while he tried to think of something. It was stupid really, her matches were in her bedroom. Disappointing her father was number two on her list of things she hated, right behind The Accident.

She had never told her dad this, but she had pulled out the pack of matches for the first time in attempt to give herself a distraction from the emotional pain she was feeling. Her mom had suspected something was wrong with her, and after some research and a private conversation with her, her mother had made an appointment with a doctor. The appointment was kept secret from her father, and it would stay that way unless the doctor had diagnosed her with depression or any other mental illness. Her father was one of those people who thought self harm and suicide were selfish and would land you in hell, and depression was just feeling sad. Eleanor's mother thought that he deserved to know if she was diagnosed with something, and that maybe if the doctor explained what was going on, he'd understand, at least a little bit.

Unfortunately, The Accident happened the day before the appointment, and Eleanor was too busy worrying about her mom to worry about that. She felt even more hopeless than before, even after eight months. The most loving and supportive person in her life was gone. The matches seemed so inviting.


	5. Chapter 5

Marceline finished the math test she was taking on Betty's laptop. 85%, not bad considering there were only 20 questions. She had been enrolled in the Ohio K12 online school since her dad had discovered it. The four of them (Betty's husband Simon wasn't sick with Alzheimer's at the time) had agreed it would be better for her. Marceline enjoyed it, history and science were actually kind of fun without the guy behind you spitting in your hair and all that crap. Bonnibel had mentioned something about having to watch the entire mini-series _The Bible_ in History, and how awful it was having to sit through that every time she went to that class for two months. Marceline felt sorry for her new friend.

Jenn and Bonnibel had said when they came over a couple days ago, that they would happily visit her in the hospital if the nurses and her family allowed it, at whatever time was convenient. Marceline would have found their kindness a little off-putting, if it wasn't for the fact that they were going through a similar situation. Not that Marceline and her small family hadn't experienced this before. Thrice before actually, once with her mother and twice with her.

Her dad was worried sick for her. When they found out Marceline's cancer had come back full swing, not long after the doctor had said she was completely cancer-free, her dad had cried. Right in front of her and Betty. There were things Marceline never thought she'd see and her daddy crying was one of them. She didn't like it at all. The way he had held her hand and looked into her green eyes was bad enough, then he started crying. He didn't just shed a tear or two, he had completely broke down. It made her feel like she was dying.

She put the laptop on the end table and laid down on the couch. Her dad came through the front door, with his luggage and briefcase.

"Daddy!" she cheered. A smile crept up on her dad's face as he put his stuff down.

"How is my little monster?" he asked. He had been calling her his little monster for as long as she could remember.

"Okay, I guess." she said, repositioning herself so her dad could sit down.

"Doctor's appointment went okay?" He asked. Marceline knew Betty had talked to him on the phone about it, but her dad wanted to hear about it from her.

"A little nerve-wracking, but what doctor's appointment isn't? Everything was okay though," She said. Her dad couldn't figure out how she stayed so casual about it, he was more scared than she seemed to be.

"I wish I could stay as calm as you are about all this," he said, sitting down and wrapping his arm around her. That's when the dam broke and her tears came running.

"Daddy, I'm really scared. I don't like this potentially fatal disease growing inside me. And sometimes I think it's going to kill me, and I hate that it killed Mommy. And I didn't like it at all when you cried at the doctor's office, I know you did that because you love me and you're scared for me, but you're always so strong and tough and seeing you break like that…" Marceline sobbed into her dad's black suit jacket. Most of the time she used music to express and let her emotions out, but sometimes you just have to cry.

~8*8~

Fridays. Every kid in the school seemed to love them. To Eleanor they were just another day. Same teasing, same homework. She dropped her math textbook on her foot, trying to put it away in her locker. Her heaviest one.

"Hey, you okay Flame Princess?" said a boy behind her. It was Finn, the boy from the ER.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she said. Finn wasn't pleased.

"I see your burn healed, I'm still in a sling. You sound kinda sad, is something upsetting you?" he said.

"No, nothing's upsetting me, why would you ask that?" she stuttered.

"Sometimes you just have to see the glass half-full," he said. Okay, now he was ticking her off. She hated the "Be positive, not negative" crap everyone tried to shove in her brain.

"I have to pee!" she said and speed walked to the bathroom.

"Okay, I guess," Finn said, even though she had run off and wasn't listening. "Just trying to help,". She hadn't shut her locker. Finn bent over and picked up her textbook to put it away. _Eleanor S. Ashworth _was written beneath a bunch of other names on the inside cover.

When Eleanor got to the ladies restroom, there were three girls near the sink. All of them had on a crap load of makeup, their hair had been bleached and probably had a billion chemicals in it, their clothing was inappropriate for twelve year old girls, one girl was smoking. Eleanor was getting out of here.

"Hey where are you going, #$&%?" Said a girl. Before another come up to her and slapped her across the face.

~8*8~

Eleanor came home from school with a black eye, multiple other bruises, and her face and hair were soaked in toilet water. Her father wasn't home. She ran up to her bedroom and found her matches. She let each one of them burn her left arm. It hurt, but it wasn't good enough. She went into the bathroom and pulled some of the contents from her dad's medicine cabinet. Her twenty-two year old brother, who was visiting for a few days, was in the kitchen talking on the phone. After the call had ended, he went down the hall to use the bathroom, where he found Eleanor's unconscious body and a couple empty pill bottles.


	6. Chapter 6

** Ten reviews! Thank you all for your kind thoughts and reading this far in the story! Here's chapter six!**

Michael Ashworth sat next to his sister's hospital bed. He had braided her hair into pigtails, like she wore it when she was little. The Eleanor he remembered pretended to be Ariel when she was in the bathtub, she pretended that the living room rug was a magic carpet, she dressed up like Cinderella and purposely left her shoes on the stairs. He remembered when he and his older brother had found out they were going to have a little sister. He remembered getting to hold her for the first time, and she had opened up her eyes and looked straight at him. He remembered being fifteen and all his friends had a date to prom and he was at home babysitting his five year old sister. Michael knew his sister wasn't exactly a little girl anymore, but in his mind she was still sweet and happy. Never in a million years could he imagine finding his little sister on the bathroom floor after she attempted suicide.

"Dang it, Eleanor! Why did you have to do this to yourself?!" he said. Silence, except for the beeping of the heart monitor. Michael was almost expecting it to just beep one continuous beep, signifying the heartbreaking end to his sister's life. The last time they had been in a hospital, was when their mom had her accident eight months ago.

~8*8~

Michael went back to his parents' house after his dad insisted he go home. As he opened the front door, he felt almost haunted by the memory of his sister running up to him everyday after school. It was still hard for him to believe everything that had happened in the past few hours. The house was eerily silent, the family cat, Flambo, was nowhere in sight. He saw the halfway open door to Eleanor's bedroom. Something seemed to draw him to it, until he was inside.

The first thing he saw was the empty pack of matches on her bed. The matches themselves were lying on the floor, the ends of all thirteen of them were burnt. On an end table next her bed was a little red book with the word "Diary" written in orange and yellow rhinestones. Had the circumstances been different he would have considered reading it a violation of her privacy.

But the circumstances being that she was in the hospital because of an unexpected suicide attempt, he walked over there, picked up the book and sat himself on the bed. He turned to the first page, which was basically about how she got the book and stuff like that. He skimmed over some pages, it was all about the funny stuff her teachers did, Flambo's antics, a book she read or a movie she watched, typical ten year old girl stuff. One entry was mainly about Her and Mom planting roses in the garden. Then there wasn't an entry until three months later, and that's when the depressed thoughts started slipping on to the paper.

There was page upon page of intense sadness, and hatred aimed at herself. These weren't the writings of a cheerful little girl, these were the writings of a depressed young lady who needed help. And according to Eleanor's diary, their mom had tried to do just that. The next entry was something he knew would be in there-Their mother's demise. Hearing that story in her words was as heartbreaking if not more than anything else in the book. He could see that the letters were shaky, as if she had trouble writing them. He went on to read the next entry.

_ Dear Diary,_

_ Today I did something really bad, and Dad is even more disappointed in me. I was laying in my bed, lost in thought. Then I started thinking about Mom and I completely lost it. I won't say this aloud to anyone, but sometimes I wish that I was the one who…_

"NO!" he thought. Tears were streaming down his face, he couldn't bare to read it. These thoughts can't be coming from his sister, right? But yes, this was his sister's diary. How? How could anyone possibly feel that way? By the time their mom had gotten to the hospital, she was gone, not dead, but gone. They had no choice but to take her off life-support. Calling it "Awful" was like calling the eruption of Vesuvius "Just a little spurt of ash". This was written about three months ago. Oh Glob what was she like now? He felt awful for not being there for her. She needed help eight months ago when their mom had made the appointment. Why didn't Dad take her? Why did she have to attempt suicide before she got any help whatsoever?

** A song playing through my mind while writing this was **_**Teen Idle**_** by Marina and the Diamonds. Which actually is a bit fitting. **


	7. Chapter 7

"Nobody kills Finn and gets away with it!" screamed Bea as she killed an enemy in the game.

Jermaine was out doing something with a friend of his, while Finn, Jake, and Bea were playing video games in Finn's room.

"Bea, quit avenging Finn and help me out here!" screamed Jake. Bee turned her avatar around and shot at the zombies attacking Jake's avatar. Her attempts failed and the two were both dead in less than a minute.

"Glob! That level is hard!" said Jake, throwing down his controller.

"Dude, you really got to work on your anger when it comes to losing problem," said Finn.

"Speaking of problems, did you ever talk with that pyromaniac girl again?" said Jake, changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah I talked to her today before Mom picked me up," he said, "Oh and her full name is Eleanor S. Ashworth,"

"I don't get why she only told you her middle initial, why not the entire thing?" asked Bea. Judging solely by her wardrobe, which consisted of colorfully buttoned sweater dresses, nylon leggings in pastel blues, and simple flats, you'd never guess she'd definitely prefer _Halo_ over _Animal Crossing._

"Well she didn't tell me, that was what was written in her math book," said Finn.

"So, Finn has a lady friend now?" said Rain as she walked into the room. The Korean bottle-blonde was wearing a rainbow high-low dress and purple high-heels. Jake wouldn't let any boy his age forget that this was his woman.

"She's not a 'lady friend'; she's just sort of my friend and also happens to be a really attractive lady," said Finn.

"So, you think she's attractive?" said Bea.

"Shut up," Finn said, his face turning red with embarrassment.

"Finn's a buff baby that can dance like a man, he can shaka his fanny, he can shaka his can, he's a tough tootin baby that can punch all your buns…" Bea sang trying to embarrass Finn with a son he made up when he was little.

"Oh, Oh Bea Moore how'd you get so pregnant? Who's the father? Whose the…"

"Dude, I played Mary in the Christmas pageant just because Loraine was sick!"

"Didn't you make out with that girl in our tree house?"

"You're in love with a pyromaniac!"

"Whoa, calm down you two!" said Jake. "Rain you sit down and make yourself at home. Finn what did you and Flame Princess talk about?"

"Nothing too important, but she seemed like something was upsetting her, she didn't say what though,"

**So I thought since this story was lacking both Finn and humor, that I'd write this chapter. Thank you all for reading!**


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